Who Do You Belong To?

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Matthew 22:15-22

Recently, I learned my friend betrayed a pact we made – she was wearing shorts and I saw that she had a tattoo on her lower calf.  “Is that a real tattoo?!” I exclaimed.  It was!  I thought we were beyond that in our mid-40s, but apparently her husband got one, and he talked her into to getting one at the same time, and she didn’t think to tell me she did that.  The thing is, we had mutually agreed way back when to both never get tattoos.  So, I felt a little betrayed, but honestly, it’s her body, I’m OK with it! I was just surprised to see that she had a tattoo!
Did you know that 46% people age 30-49 in the U.S. today have at least one tattoo? That’s almost half.  I honestly thought I was in the minority not having a tattoo in my generation, but I guess I’m not – quite yet.  Have you ever thought– if you were to get a tattoo, what would you get?  One reason I haven’t ever gotten one is that I’m just not sure I love anything so much I’d want it on my body permanently. Like how’s that going to look when I’m 95 years old?  Isn’t that what tattoos are partly about --symbols or words or images that convey something that is very important to us – so much so that we are willing to make that thing a part of us, written on our bodies for a lifetime. What is so important to you that you wouldn’t mind having it on your body permanently?  What would be the marks that would tell someone about what you’re about, like a tattoo?
In our gospel for this morning, the religious authorities come to Jesus asking what is most important to him, basically, but this is not an innocent question – they are plotting to entrap him, Matthew tells us.  The Herodians and Pharisees are on opposite sides of the political spectrum – the Pharisees do not believe that they should pay taxes and are totally against the Roman occupation of Israel; the Herodians are benefitting from the Roman Empire and supportive of the tax.  Ironically, they become united in their antagonism toward Jesus.  They want Jesus to pick a side, and in doing so, catch him committing blasphemy against God or treason against the Roman Empire.  
Jesus asks them to simply show him what’s in their pockets.  What are they already carrying with them? They show him a Roman coin, worth about a day’s wage for a laborer.  And what is the coin marked with? Jesus asks again.  The head of Caesar.  The mark tells people who the coins belong to, ultimately, for the tax.  But how do we know what belongs to God?  Jesus has us thinking this morning – what is God’s mark, God’s tattoo?  What are the things that are God’s and how do we know?  And once we know, what do we do with those things that are God’s?  What does God want us to do with what belongs to God in the first place?
So hopefully by this point you are answering some of my questions to say, “Well, everything belongs to God. Even the money marked with someone else’s head and title.”  Yes!  This is what makes Jesus’ approach to the Pharisees’ and Herodians’ question so clever.  Everything we have, including our money, regardless of the currency, belongs to God!  It’s not as obvious as a tattoo or a stamp on a coin, though, is it, to remember that everything belongs to God.  How often we talk about the things that are mine – my personal property, my paycheck, my body, my decision. What if we replaced “mine” with God’s”: God’s paycheck, God’s property, God’s body, God’s decision.  Jesus asks us to remember the marks – that everything we have is God-marked.  When we remember that everything we have is God-marked, that might change how we treat our things, and how we give back to God the things that are God’s in praise and thanksgiving.
Today, Jesus reminds us that not only our things belong to God, people also belong to God.  God cares about more than our money and our stuff.  People are God’s most important, prized possession in fact.  We, too, belong to God, whether we have a tattoo or other mark that says so or not.  When we were baptized, we were marked with the cross of Christ forever.  Christ claimed us as his own.  The cross of our baptism may not visible, but can we live like it is?  Can we live like we are God’s most important possessions, and therefore, what God has done for us in Jesus Christ is most important to us?  Can we live like the people we encounter in our daily lives are also God-marked, God’s most important possessions?  We belong to God, so we think about not only how we give back to God some of our money but also some of ourselves – the thing we are good at doing and the things we enjoy doing, taking care of our bodies, how we spend our time and how we live our lives.  The cross is a tattoo I’d wear.  Amen.